Canada-EU Trade Agreement is Finalized

Oct 21, 2013

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission president Jose Manual Barroso announced in a joint press conference in Brussels last week that Canada and the European Union have signed a tentative deal to open markets and drop nearly all import taxes on everything from food to cars, a deal that Harper called "a historic win for Canada."

The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) is great news for the food industries in Canada since some of the deals provisions include full access to EU markets for Canadian fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables, wheat, oats, barley, rye and canola oil, and no more tariffs for many seafood products, including cooked and peeled shrimp, live lobster, frozen lobster and frozen scallops.

For the EU food industry the deal means that Canada will allow over twice as much tariff-free cheese from the EU, and no more tariffs on European wine and spirits entering Canada. To read more, click HERE.